Past Symptoms Can Bring Back Fears Of The Past
by Alikinginnit
Summary: Where fear is, happiness is not.
1. Chapter 1

**I wrote this ages ago and I'm very unsure about it TBH. It's quite dark but hopefully you'll enjoy it...**

"I'm here for you, you know? No matter what.' Carla gently tries to calm Nick down as she sheepishly places her hands on his arms but he quickly shakes her off.

"No no. Don't try and pretend you know how this feels because you don't. You don't." He sees her become visibly shaken at his harsh tone as she steps back, yet he doesn't stop.

"Nick, I know I don't. I know it's hard-" she starts before he cuts her off, walking slowly towards her as she starts to back up towards the door of their flat.

"Hard?!" He exclaims. "Aww you think it's hard, do you?" He mocks her as she watches him in a mixture of fear and shock. "Sometimes I woke up and I wasn't me. I couldn't do some things, simple things that I could before. And now it's all starting again. And the only thing you can say is that it's hard?!" He says, getting louder again as she shuffles once again further towards the door.

"It is hard. It's damn more than hard. It's impossible to live like this and you... you just you don't understand." He suddenly screams as he grabs hold of her wrists, shoving her aggressively into the door and she lets out a gasp.

Before Carla even has time to think, her instincts kick in and before she knows it she's kicked him between the legs as she drops to the floor.

Gasping for breath, she looks up to see her fiancé, the love of her life, her Nicky, groaning in pain while she rapidly makes the decision to run out of the flat. And, she does, as fast as she can, not even daring to look back.

She doesn't know where she's running. She doesn't know what she's doing. She just knows what she can see in her head and that she needs to get away from it; two different memories, two different men who claimed to love her.

She runs and runs and runs because all she wants to do is hope she can run far enough to escape her mind. She wants to escape the memory of Frank, the fear of what could have happened just then. She just wants to escape.

As Carla gets back onto the main part of Coronation Street, she looks around, desperately trying to decide where she could go, where she could hide.

She knows Nick would never hurt her, or at least she thinks she does. That wasn't him. It wasn't his fault, it was the brain damage, not him.

All she wants to do is find Nick and make up with him, but one look down to her bright red wrists which are sure to develop bruises from his rough grip and she can't bare to go back there.

Eventually, she gets to outside Underworld and knows she needs to go inside. More than anything else, she knows she doesn't have anywhere else to go. Nicks at her flat, she can't bare to face the vast number of punters which are likely to be in the Rovers and Roy is still away helping Sylvia.

Walking in, Carla expects to feel relief at the silence which greets her in what is soon to be solely her brothers factory. Instead, it just makes her even more aware to the horrors being replayed inside her head.

She barely even notices she's entered the office before she's sat at her desk, her hand assisting the contents of a bottle of whisky to make its way into her mouth.

She thinks of going back to see Nick but she still just can't bring herself to, somethings stopping her. Maybe, the fear of what she might find or the fear of what would've happened if she hadn't had kicked him earlier.

No. She quickly discards the idea from her mind.

He may have scared her but he isn't Frank, he isn't a monster. He would never intentionally hurt her. He's just not well at the moment but it isn't his fault.

Carla sits, her finger running itself over the rim of the whisky bottle in her other hand as she gently swivels round on her office chair, staring blankly forward.

The silence is suddenly disturbed as she hears the door swing open and she's left in a panic, unable to think clearly due to the mixture of fear still remaining, the whiskey and the shock of everything that's happened in the last few hours.

Looking around, she anxiously grabs the nearest thing she could possibly use as a weapon and stands up from the chair, gripping the nearby stapler in her hands- not the best weapon, but at the moment in time, it was all she could bring herself to do to protect herself.

"Carla are you okay?" Carla quickly places the stapler back down as she comes face to face with the two men who she had recently discovered as her dad and brother, Johnny and Aidan.

"Hmm err yeah I'm fine. Fine." She stutters as they both walk towards her, concerned looks on their faces.

"Really? You don't look it." Aidan states as she continues to persist.

"No I'm fine, really." She says, though both Johnny and Aidan are able to see right through it. It's clear from her mascara stained face that she's been crying and she's visibly shaking on the chair although she attempts to hide it.

"What's happened?" Johnny inquires.

"Nothing." She hastily replies.

"Carla, you can tell us you know." Johnny tells her softly as Carla continues to run her hands up and down her arms, unaware to her sleeve riding up slightly before it's too late.

As soon as she notices, she pulls it back down, covering her wrist but both Johnny and Aidan had already saw it.

"What's that?" Aidan asks, even though he could already see the bruise developing on his sisters wrist.

"I told you it's nothing. Just leave me alone." She says, aggressively.

"Who did that?" Johnny returns her anger as they both stare at her, awaiting a response.

"No one, look it doesn't matter. Don't tell anyone about this, please?" She asks desperately.

"Carla, we've just found you in here, obviously upset and petrified but he looks of it with bruised wrists. How do you expect us to not tell anyone? Don't you think Nick would want to know that someone's hurt you?" Aidan asks, obliviously but both him and Johnny are taken aback by her reaction.

They weren't met with the soft smile that would usually appear on her face just from the mention of his name. Instead, she shuddered. It was only for a split second and she had obviously tried to cover it up. But, it was unmistakable.

"Please don't tell me-" Aidan starts as she cuts him off.

"Tell you what?" She asks in anger at what they're finding out.

"Did Nick do this? I mean why? What else did he do? Did he hurt you?" Aidan is unable to stop so many questions from flowing out of his mouth as thoughts circle in his mind at what his sister could've been put through.

"No I mean- no." She hesitates as she considers confessing the truth before deciding against it, knowing there's no way that they could forget they found out that Nick had done something.

"You don't seem so sure." Johnny says, clearly worried for his daughter.

"Well I am. I've got to go." She hears their protests as she rushes out of the factory, anxious to head back to her flat, knowing she has to face Nick sooner rather than later.

 **I really hope you liked that. Please review to let me know if you did and if you want me to carry it on or not? Thank you for reading.**


	2. Chapter 2

As Carla gets nearer the door of her flat, she feels the fear coming back from earlier, the fear of what will happen when she goes in, the fear of what kind of mood Nick might be in.

She carefully places her hand on the door handle to find the door is unlocked as she slowly opens it.

"Nick? Are you here?"

Carla barely gets through the door when she sees him, sitting, motionless, staring.

"Nick?" She says, worriedly as she approaches him. He's sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall with a glass half full of what looks and smell strongly of whiskey. He doesn't seem to even register her presence, instead just sitting, staring.

"Hey." She tries to get his attention, the desperation evident in her voice. "Nick I'm here now. Please answer me? Nick?" She tries to stop them, but she can't. The tears are once again falling down her face before she can stop them. She told herself she wouldn't let herself seem weak in front of him again, yet she just couldn't stop them.

After a long, long silence, he eventually speaks. "I- I thought you were gone."

Carla feels her heart break at the state he's in as she can't help but feel it's her fault. "I was and I'm sorry. But, I'm here now. I'm never gone for good, I swear." She sits next to him, still looking at him, as if begging for his eyes to make contact with hers.

"I'm sorry-" he tries to look her in the eye but he can't, there's something stopping him, guilt. He doesn't do anything to stop the tears now staining his cheeks too.

"It's okay. I know you didn't mean to. It wasn't your fault." She tries to reassure him, desperately.

"No don't make excuses, it was my fault. I'm so sorry. You know I could never hurt you?" He tells her, although he looks unsure of the words he's saying.

"Yeah of course I do. I know. It's okay" she moves closer to him, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him close, scared that he would push her away, but he doesn't.

And that's how they stay. Sitting, together, silent, waiting. Waiting for one of them to speak, but they don't. They lay there, on the floor for hours, neither one of them able to disentangle them from the others body.

It's not long after she falls asleep there on the floor that Nick forces himself to stand up. He carries her through to the bedroom and places her gently under the duvet of their bed, placing a loving kiss on her head.

* * *

It's around 3am when Nick is suddenly awoken, he's awoken by screams. At first, he fears it's the screams in the nightmare he's just woken up from. But, when he has sat up and taken a few deep breaths, it's only then he realises the harsh reality.

Looking next to him, he sees his once strong fiancé re-living an experience she would've much rather forgotten. He can see the terror on her face as she thrashes about in the bed, uttering the same words repeatedly. "No. Please. Please don't. No. Stop please."

At that moment, he is sure he feels is heart shatter.

"Carla. Hey, come on. Wake up sweetheart." He attempts to wake her up gently, not wanting to scare her as he shakes her shoulders slowly.

Just as she seems to settle back down and he thinks the nightmare is over, she wakes up and he doesn't realise that that's when the real nightmare begins.

Carla sits bolt upright before sprinting from the bed, still unable to stop her screaming the same words, over and over until she's slumped in the corner of the room, facing the wall and he's stunned into silence.

She faces it, crouched down, seeing no other way out as she pleads with her fiancé not to hurt her.

Slowly, he walks around the bed towards her before stopping at a suitable distance as she still refuses to look up. "Carla, it's me. It's Nick. I'm not going to hurt you. You're okay." As he moves round, he sees the state he's in and, yet again, can't stop from blaming himself.

He can see her shaking, the way she's closed her eyes in fear and the sound of her voice as she begs him. He's never heard something like it before and the only thing he knows is he doesn't want to hear anything like it again. "Look at me, please." He bravely places his finger under her chin, tilting it up slowly. "It's me. It's Nick."

She stares at him for a second before replying, "Nick?" She asks it as if she's only just noticed he's there, like she's just woken up.

"Yeah it's me. It's okay darling." He's anxious to touch her, still fearful of how she could react. However, luckily, she almost jumps into his arms, craving the feelings of safety that she feels when she's in his arms.

With each sob that escapes her mouth as he holds her, he reassures her again of her safety. With each sob that escapes her mouth as he holds her, he blames himself for losing his temper. With each sob that escapes her mouth as he holds her, he feels his heart break just that little bit more.

 **I know this isn't very good so sorry about that. I hope you enjoyed it anyway. Sorry for leaving it so long too. I was just really busy. Thank you so much for all the lovely reviews on the last chapter. I never expected it to get so many and each one meant the world. Please review and let me know if you want me to continue this? I honestly didn't think I woul continue after the first one but everyone's kind words made me want to. Thank you so much for reading.**


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